This new year has got off to a sad start for cartoonists (and policemen, and other innocent victims of terrorist attacks). Instead of the cartoon I was planning to wish you all happy new year (an official declaration of h.m.h. bonkerdom and muddle of mixing up days and getting on wrong trains) I add my voice to those lamenting the cartoonists massacred at Charlie Hebdo in Paris. “Still no terrorist attacks in France?.. asks the armed jihadist in one of Charbonnier’s last cartoons, before adding a second thought… “Wait! We have until the end of January to present our wishes for the New Year”.

There were two who were quick on the draw indeed.

I hope we manage to see what happened for what it is and not let ourselves get dragged into an anti-immigrant, anti-muslim rhetoric. Many of my best friends are muslims, some of the kindest and most thoughtful people I know. I draw them crying and shocked, vulnerable in the front row of spectators… next in the firing line? The assumed gunmen were orphaned, radicalised in prison…., an all too common destiny for those brought up in care homes… I hope we can draw the necessary lessons of how better to look after the widows/orphans/marginalised and vulnerable in our society…. otherwise we are merely sowing seeds for the grimmest of reapers…